This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event November 1, 2009: Oklahoma Law Requires Posting Abortion Information Online. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.

President Bush signs a bill into law banning so-called “partial-birth abortions.” A similar bill was vetoed by then-President Clinton in 1996 (see April 1996). The bill signing is part of a ceremony of abortion opposition featuring some 400 lawmakers and anti-abortion advocates. The new law, known as the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act, is the first time the federal goverment has banned an abortion procedure since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortions (see January 22, 1973). A federal judge in Nebraska has already said the law may be unconstitutional, and many observers expect it to be challenged. [CBS News, 4/19/2007] Three years later, the Supreme Court will uphold the law (see April 17, 2007).

Three separate federal courts rule that the federal ban on so-called “partial-birth abortions” (see November 5, 2003) is unconstitutional. One judge rules that the law illegally infringes on a woman’s right to choose. A second and third rule that the law must contain a provision excepting such a procedure in the case of a danger to the mother’s life or health. The case will be appealed to the Supreme Court (see April 17, 2007). [CBS News, 4/19/2007]

An Indiana mother and her 17-year-old daughter visit what they think is a Planned Parenthood (PP) clinic to receive counseling about the daughter’s pregnancy. The facility is actually a “crisis pregnancy clinic,” or CPC, operated by anti-abortion activists. The CPC is near the Planned Parenthood clinic, and shares a parking lot with it. According to a PP email alert, the CPC is one of a number of false clinics “designed expressly to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them.” In this case, the CPC staff, pretending to be PP clinic officials, record the girl’s confidential information and make a false “appointment” for her that is to take place in the “other office”—the actual PP clinic. When the girl returns for her appointment, the PP clinicians have no record of her. Moreover, she is met by police, who have been told by the CPC staff that the girl is a minor being forced to have an abortion against her will. In the days and weeks following the encounter, the girl and her family are harassed and stalked by anti-abortion activists. The activists come to her home and call her father’s workplace to “counsel” the family against having an abortion. The PP clinic director later says the girl was “scared to death to leave her house.” The activists even go to the girl’s school and urge her classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion. PP warns that anti-abortion organizations around the country are setting up CPCs (see May 1, 2006), many of which pass themselves off as non-partisan women’s health clinics offering a full range of reproductive services, but in actuality are fronts for those organizations, providing no health services but instead disseminating pamphlets and other information. PP accuses these CPCs of trafficking in “propaganda and intimidation,” and writes: “[A]ccording to The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the US than there are actual abortion providers! What’s more, these centers have received $60 million of government grants. They’re being funded by our tax dollars.” The PP blog entry featuring the email alert is later removed from the organization’s site, but is preserved on another Web site. [Planned Parenthood, 4/21/2006] The story is later verified by Planned Parenthood official Jennifer Jorczak. [AlterNet, 5/1/2006]

The liberal news Web site AlterNet publishes an expose of “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs), clinics purporting to be women’s health centers offering pregnancy counseling, including abortions, but in reality operated by anti-abortion organizations (see April 2006). Reporter Amanda Marcotte notes that many CPCs are funded by over $60 million in government grants, and use the money to rent offices near real women’s clinics and health facilities, and rent billboards advertising their services as if they are actual health clinics. She writes: “If you’re facing an unwanted pregnancy, one of the possible solutions would be getting un-pregnant—still a legal, if sometimes difficult-to-find, option in America. But the ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ these signs advertise seek to limit and, in some cases, prevent women from exploring their legal options for health care.” CPCs are being heavily, and increasingly, funded by the Bush administration and conservative legislators earmarking funds in state and local budgets, at the expense of funds for actual women’s clinics. Low-income women are at particular risk for losing services, Marcotte notes. In some cases, she continues, anti-abortion organizations have formed for the specific purpose of obtaining government grants. The history of CPCs goes back at least as far as 1967, when anti-abortion activist Robert Pearson opened the first one as what he called “the service arm of the anti-choice movement.” During the 1980s, according to the pro-choice organization Planned Parenthood, CPCs would often provide shelter to women wanting abortions until the legal deadline for having the procedure had passed; the CPCs would then turn the women out, forcing them to either carry the fetus to term or seek an illegal abortion. By 1985, many states had put an end to CPCs falsely advertising themselves as real health clinics, forcing them to actually offer a minimum level of health care. Marcotte reports that “as a general rule, [CPCs] have few or no paid employees, no medical personnel on staff, and no real facilities to provide any medical care. Generally speaking, the medical treatment provided by the largely volunteer staff is nothing more than handing clients a pregnancy test that could be purchased over the counter for $10.” [AlterNet, 5/1/2006]

In a 5-4 decision splitting the court between conservatives and moderate/liberal justices, the Supreme Court upholds the 2003 ban on so-called “partial-birth abortions.” The Court rules that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. [CBS News, 4/19/2007]

During the year, a number of states enact over 77 laws and other measures that affect reproductive rights, a sharp upturn from the 33 enacted in 2008. Some of these laws protect and enhance reproductive rights (see 2009), others restrict them. Some of the restrictive laws are as follows: Arizona adopts what the Guttmacher Institute calls “a massive omnibus measure that essentially revamps abortion policy in the state,” requiring in-person counseling, long waiting periods before a woman can legally seek an abortion, and new restrictions on minors seeking abortions; the measure restricts the performance of abortion procedures to physicians only and grants providers new rights to refuse to participate in abortion-related services. The new measure is shepherded through the state legislature by Governor Jan Brewer (R-AZ), a strong opponent of abortion rights. Many of the new measures are not in effect due to legal challenges. Eighteen other states attempt to enact measures relating to parental involvement in attempts by minors to seek abortions, but fail. Arizona, Kansas, North Dakota, and Ohio adopt laws requiring abortion providers to post signs informing women that they cannot be coerced into having abortions, and encouraging their clients to contact authorities or clinic staff if they feel they have been subjected to such pressure. Arizona and Arkansas adopt measures restricting so-called “partial-birth abortions” similar to a federal ban upheld by the Supreme Court in 2007 (see April 17, 2007). In all, 17 states have such restrictions. Utah tightens the availability of such late-term abortions in its laws. A measure that would have entirely banned “partial-birth abortions” and restricted other such procedures was vetoed in Kansas. Iowa, Maryland, and Minnesota continue existing prohibitions on public funding for abortion. Kansas and Nebraska enact laws requiring that women seeking abortions after 19 weeks’ gestation be given information on the availability of ultrasound procedures. In all, 16 states now have similar requirements on the books. Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, and Washington enact substantial cuts in family planning programs. North Dakota enacts a law requiring women seeking abortions to be told that the procedure will “terminate the life of a whole, separate, and unique human being.” Similar provisions were enacted by the Kansas legislature, but vetoed by Governor Mark Parkinson (D-KS). Oklahoma enacts laws banning abortions for purposes of “sex selection,” and institutes what the Guttmacher Institute calls “intrusive abortion reporting requirements” that will result in making private information about women seeking abortions public (see November 1, 2009). Utah requires women seeking abortions to be provided with information on the purported ability of a fetus to feel pain, information many medical providers consider false. The state also institutes an “Abortion Litigation Trust Account” to cover the cost of defending the state against legal challenges filed against its anti-abortion laws. Tennessee joins six other states in restricting access to contraceptive services. Virginia authorizes the sale of license plates with the “Choose Life” slogan, and earmarks profits from the sale of those plates to fund “crisis pregnancy centers” (see April 2006) across the state. Twenty-one states now offer such license plates. [Guttmacher Institute, 1/2010]

An Oklahoma law requiring that information about abortions be made public goes into effect. The law requires the collection of personal details about the women who have abortions, and mandates that the information be posted on a public Web site. The information includes: Date of abortion; County in which abortion performed; Age of mother; Marital status of mother (married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married); Race of mother; Years of education of mother (specify highest year completed); State or foreign country of residence of mother; Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother, including live births, miscarriages, and induced abortions. The law does not collect names, addresses, or “any information specifically identifying the patient.” However, pro-choice group Feminists for Choice notes that the information that is collected can easily be used to identify a woman, especially in a smaller community. “They’re really just trying to frighten women out of having abortions,” says Keri Parks of Planned Parenthood. The Center for Reproductive Rights is challenging the law. [Think Progress, 10/8/2009] Salon columnist Lynn Harris writes: “According to proponents of the law, this extensive abortion data—which will include the reason the procedure was sought—will help health officials prevent future abortions. Yeah, I can see that. Because the requirement itself would scare the sh_t out of me.” Harris continues: “It isn’t unique for a state to post health data on its Web site. However, Oklahoma’s requirements are by far the most extensive as such. The law’s supporters claim they want this information to be made public so it can be used for ‘academic research,’ but according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, its collection method makes it useless for that purpose.” [Salon, 10/7/2009]

Ordering

Time period

Email Updates

Receive weekly email updates summarizing what contributors have added to the History Commons database

Donate

Developing and maintaining this site is very labor intensive. If you find it useful, please give us a hand and donate what you can.Donate Now

Volunteer

If you would like to help us with this effort, please contact us. We need help with programming (Java, JDO, mysql, and xml), design, networking, and publicity. If you want to contribute information to this site, click the register link at the top of the page, and start contributing.Contact Us